Phones and tablets now make it easy for work to follow us everywhere, even after the workday ends. We get emails, chats, and app alerts all the time, and it can be hard to relax when work keeps popping up on our screens.
And not everyone works the same hours anymore. Some people work early, late, or on weekends. But the notifications often come at the wrong time, bothering people when they’re trying to rest or spend time with family.
That’s why it’s important to find better ways to manage these alerts. People need time to unplug so they can rest and recharge, even in a world that never really stops.
Quiet Time in Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Teams helps you control work notifications on your mobile devices, protecting your personal time.
When you turn on Quiet Time:
- Your phone or tablet mutes notifications from Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Outlook.
- You can set it for specific hours (like 17:00 to 8:00) or all day on certain days.
- If you use the same work account across devices, your settings can sync between apps when you enable the “Set on Teams and Outlook” toggle.
This feature is especially useful for people with flexible or irregular schedules, helping maintain a healthier work-life balance.
INFORMATION
These settings are only available for Work or School Accounts, not for personal ones. And are only for Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Teams on Android and iOS/iPadOS.
What are the benefits of configuring quiet time?
The Quiet Time feature in Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Teams offers several helpful benefits, especially for people trying to balance work and personal life:
- Fewer distractions after hours: It silences work notifications on your mobile device during set times, so you’re not interrupted during dinner, family time, or rest.
- Better work-life balance: By muting alerts outside of working hours, you can help yourself mentally disconnect from work and recharge.
- Custom scheduling: You can choose specific hours or full days to mute notifications, which is great if your schedule isn’t the typical 9-to-5.
- Sync across apps: If you use the same work account, your Quiet Time settings can apply to both Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Outlook on your mobile devices.
- Supports well-being: Reducing digital overload can lower stress and help prevent burnout, especially in remote or hybrid work environments.
It’s a small setting with a big impact, like putting up a “Do Not Disturb” sign for your brain.
Why would you configure this with Microsoft Intune?
If your company truly values your mental health and respects your personal time, it can show that commitment by using Microsoft Intune to automate Quiet Time policies. This way, your mobile devices mute work notifications from Outlook and Teams after hours automatically, without you needing to do anything.
It’s a simple, thoughtful way to protect your focus, reduce stress, and let you fully enjoy your life outside of work.
Quiet time in Microsoft Intune is a feature that allows administrators to create policies to mute notifications from Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Teams on iOS/iPadOS and Android devices during specified periods. This can include after work hours, on certain days, or during non-working times. Here’s a high-level overview of how it works:
- Define Quiet Periods: Administrators specify the times and days when notifications should be muted, such as evenings, weekends, or holidays.
- Target Policies to Specific Users or Groups: The policies can be applied to specific groups or individuals within the organization, ensuring flexibility and relevance.
- Apply Configuration to Mobile Devices: The policies are pushed to users’ iOS/iPadOS or Android devices, automatically applying the settings.
- Enforcement During Quiet Times: During the designated periods, notifications from Outlook and Teams are suppressed on users’ devices, allowing them to focus or disconnect.
How do you configure this with Microsoft Intune?
To configure Quiet Time in Microsoft Intune, you can configure three types of policies:
- Date range: With this policy, you can set a specific date range for Quiet Time to be active.
- Days of the week: active Quiet Time for certain hours or all day for specific days
- Non-working time: Quiet Time will activate automatically during non-working hours, which you can set manually in your Outlook Calendar settings.
Now, let’s create a Quiet Time policy in Microsoft Intune. You don’t need to create a separate policy for each OS; these policies apply to both Android and iOS/iPadOS. This demo creates a policy disabling Outlook and Teams notifications after working hours on weekdays and all day on weekends.
INFORMATION: Make sure your iOS/iPadOS devices are managed with Microsoft Intune.
Go to Microsoft Intune admin center | Apps | Quiet time, choose + Create. Then choose Policy Type, Days of the week, and give it a name and description. In the Configuration settings pane, configure the settings as shown in the screenshot below.
The last step is to assign this to a user group. Why not a device group? Because this also works on unmanaged devices. In this case, we have a license-based user group with all users who have an active Microsoft 365 license.
End-user Experience
On the end user’s mobile device, we see the following in Microsoft Outlook. Open Microsoft Outlook and go to Settings | Notifications | Do not disturb | During quiet time. You’ll see your organisation manages the Quiet Time settings as configured. The sliders remain active, so you can override them.
Conclusion
Setting Quiet Time in Microsoft Intune prevents employees from receiving work notifications in Outlook and Teams on mobile devices 24/7. Allowing users to customise these settings shows you value their work-life balance and care about their individual preferences. It may not seem like much, but it’s a start by configuring this feature.
